Oaxaca Documentary Released

In May 2006 the annual teachers’ strike in Oaxaca, Mexico turned into a people’s movement and uprising against the repressive response of the Oaxacan and Mexican governments. As part of that movement, known as APPO, the people took over radio stations, using broadcasting as the most effective tool for communicating with often remote indigenous villages in that state.

I aired a couple of reports from George Salzman and Nancy Davies, two American activists living in Oaxaca, on the radio show last September and November.

Now Seattle’s Corrugated Films has released a documentary on the APPO, Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad (A Little Bit of So Much Truth), focusing on the strategic use of media:

[The film] captures the unprecedented media phenomenon that emerged when tens of thousands of school teachers, housewives, indigenous communities, health workers, farmers, and students took 14 radio stations and one TV station into their own hands, using them to organize, mobilize, and ultimately defend their grassroots struggle for social, cultural, and economic justice.

The film is screening around South and North America (including CKUT’s upcoming Redefining Media conference), and is also for sale.

I’m very interested in seeing Un Poquito de Tanta Verada, so I think I’ll order myself up a copy.